How Do You Know What the Stitch Growth Will Be for Crochet? + Tutorial

How does a crochet designer determine how many stitches the item will grow when there is a corner in growing out a blanket from the middle, if it is a square or rectangle?

Some factors make the decision but the crocheter can also screw things up as well. Let's examine.

Decision Factors

Height of Stitches

• The height of the stitch is ultimately the deciding factor for the number of stitches to add to a corner.
• The taller the stitch, the more distance it takes to complete a turn.

Analogy: If you were running around a track, the people on the outside ring of the track would have to run faster than the people on the interior ring, as the distance is much greater. In crochet, we need an extra stitch(es) when the stitch is taller to complete the turn than the shorter stitches.

Stitch Multiples

• Suppose there are stitch multiples or a specific order of stitches. The decision on how many stitches to add in the corners may come down to assigning what is put into the corner.

Adjusting for Stitch Count

• Stitch multiples are usually a set number of stitches to make it happen.
• The crochet diagram's picture below shows an 'odd number' of stitches between the corners.
• Stitches like criss cross are usually in 'even numbers' and wouldn't work in the sample as shown below.
• A designer may lob a corner to change the counts from an odd number to an even number or vice versa.

An example is the Study of Texture Blanket Pattern. Glancing at it, people don't usually see that in round 20, the last stitch before the corner has two double crochets in there. Do you see it?

An extra stitch was added to balance the stitch counts so the texture stitches would work. There were 61 stitches in round 19, but round 20 states 66. The growth per side was 5 stitches per side. We can occasionally do this in patterns to bring balance, but continuously doing this would cause the blanket to buckle. It changed the remaining blanket to even numbers per side from just changing this one thing in round 20.

For those not following the pattern, this round 20 has caused so many crocheters to miss this instruction, which wrecks their stitch counts.

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